Qatari and Iranian outlets, alongside Hezbollah-afiliated writers and mouthpieces, have, for the last hours, attempted to blame Israel for the massacre committed by Hezbollah at the Majdal Shams stadium, which saw 12 children dead and almost 40 injured.
On its official accounts, Hezbollah rushed to dryly deny any relation to the “incident” in Majdal Shams, twice in three hours. However, other messages were propagated in an almost orchestrated manner by Hezbollah sympathizers and affiliates, in an attempt to claim that Israel was behind the killings, either due to a failed interception by the Iron Dome system, or even on purpose to drive for a casus belli against the Lebanese proxy of Iran.
Hezbollah-affiliated writer Salem Zahran also posted on his X account: “Hezbollah’s shooters are skilled, and since the beginning of the war, they have been careful not to target civilians. So how can it even be possible that, when civilians are targeted, it would be the people of Majdal Shams, who are disobedient to ‘Judaization’... Yes, what happened was either a Zionist mistake with Israeli missiles from the Iron Dome, or a deliberate act to be used in the field and politics coinciding with Netanyahu’s presence in Washington, and on the eve of the Rome meeting of the leaders of the security services to discuss a ceasefire.”
Likewise, pro-Hezbollah writer Hussein Sabra also lied, unfoundedly, that “within Israel” “it has become 100% certain... that the missile that fell came from the Iron Dome,” adding that “it was planned by the enemy to create a pretext for waging a wide-scale war on Lebanon.”
The same allegations were sounded, unsurprisingly, by the Iranian Al-Alam channel which broadcasts in Arabic, quoting “local sources” who alleged that “most of the residents saw with their own eyes an interceptor missile launched by the Israeli Iron Dome, which fell inside the Majdal Shams stadium.”
The station, owned by the Islamic Republic regime, also attempted to claim that since the beginning of the war, Arab towns in the Golan did not witness any friction or Hezbollah drones, despite the fact that Hezbollah’s own channel reported on the sirens in Majdal Shams, and despite other outlets loyal to the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ such as Resistance News Network gleefully reporting on the targeting of Majdal Shams and celebrating the death of “11 settlers,” in the early evening on Saturday.
Additional aid came from the Sunni direction, as Christine Rimawi, a reporter at the Qatari-owned Al-Araby channel, alleged in her report from Majdal Shams on Saturday night that she heard from a volunteer wearing a Star of David shirt that he had heard from eyewitnesses in the northern Druze village that the rocket which fell was an “Iron Dome rocket,” as he phrased it.
The unfounded and rather coiled report went viral and aided in the promotion of a narrative accusing Israel of the massacre of 12 children, perpetrated by the Iranian proxy, Hezbollah. Rimawi also claimed that the volunteer refused to state this on record fearing he would be “sent to jail,” a practice more befitting totalitarian monarchies than democratic countries.
Opposers of Hezbollah unimpressed
Despite these attempts to whitewash Hezbollah’s attack, many online users refused to take them at their word. Anti-Hezbollah blogger from Lebanon, Raymond Hakim, wrote on his X account: “Today, tomorrow, later, and yesterday, it is all as clear as the sun: Nasrallah kills children, and the last of it was in Majdal Shams.”
Another Lebanese blogger named Rimas added: “Lebanon will be wiped off the map after Hassouna’s (a derogatory name for Hassan Nasrallah) actions. We can only say ‘May God protect civilians.’”
A third user named “an official source” uploaded a video from Majdal Shams which circulated on social media in which the speaker pointed to locations in the village where Hezbollah’s missiles fell, adding figuratively: “Thousands of missiles were raining down!” The user added: “A local source in the occupied Golan: A heavy missile barrage, fired by the resistance forces from Southern Lebanon, towards the occupied Golan, some of which landed north of (Haret Al-Jabal) in Majdal Shams and the adjacent mountain slopes, amid attempts to intercept it by the ‘Israeli’ defenses.”
An anti-Iranian blogger from Iraq named Mujtahed Al-Iraq (Fighter of Iraq) tweeted: “I know that Israel will avenge these, as it is more honorable than the Shiites... and it considers the victims as its citizens. I hope that every Druze killed today will be met by a hundred of Bashar’s, Hezbollah’s, and Iran’s agents, and that revenge will be no less than what happened in Hodeidah after the killing of an Israeli citizen in Tel Aviv.”
Qutayba Yassin, a Syrian writer for the anti-regime channel Syria Television, openly blamed Hezbollah for the massacre, adding that “these were Syrians who refused to give up their citizenship and accept the Israeli one.”
Makram Rabah, an anti-Hezbollah university professor from Beirut, also insinuated that Hezbollah stands behind the massacre, adding: “The weapon of treachery targeted Majdal Shams... Your missiles only hit the blood of innocent Arabs... Mercy for the blood of children.”